Cost Effective Folding

[paulktreg]

My electricity bill is getting ridiculous, over £100 per month, so my question is what is the best "bang for for buck" folding hardware?

[Guest_Jim_*]

I believe the GTX 460 was for a time, so the 550 or 560 may be the best now.

For cost of the card per point it was the best. Not sure about energy efficiency. Not sure if anyone's ever measured that either.

[VaporX]

While you can get some hardware to reduce the cost in the end you will only go down so far. Computers are usually very energy efficient but that is because even in hard gaming sessions they are only at full power draw about 5% of the total game play time. Folding on the other hand is at 100% about 95% of the time which means the computer is sucking juice. I used to run three computers in my house just folding during down time. I discovered that I saved $100 dollars a month by not folding.

 

Now do not get me wrong but I just do not make enough money each year to donate over $1200 a year for cancer research, that is in effect what I was doing. Now I still donate. I work various fund raisers and donate cash but there is no way I can sustain that level of cost.

[ccokeman]

My electricity bill is getting ridiculous, over £100 per month, so my question is what is the best "bang for for buck" folding hardware?

 

 

I wish I had the answer as it really is a trade off. Better parts deliver more results but it costs more to run. I have two folding currently but I also have a vested interest now that makes that monthly contribution to the power company seem insignificant in terms of the cost of a loved one.

[Shurman292]

Stash your computer(s) in a lockable supply closet at work

 

All kidding aside, the 670 is fairly light on power usage and with the 660 right around the corner (hopefully), that card should be an even better buy for efficiency.